Check the steering box drop shaft bearings, if you have a look under the steering box while someone moves the steering wheel either side of centre, if these bushes/bearings are slack the shaft will rock slightly before moving the drag link and swivels.
Worn tyres can also have the shimmy effect, borrow a good set on rims from a mate,(as close to new set as you can get), fit them give it a go.
 
Sure enough, it was a dying steering box. By the time I got round to removing it, there was some really impressive play between input and output. Now mid-way through replacing it, i.e. I've done it once, car drives much better, new (old) box leaks catastrophically so I need to source another. Feels totally different without the steering play.
 
Get a refurb'd box, you just have to send them your old box back in exchange (just make sure its clean). When mine went the wobble sheared the tie rod as well...
 
As a little bit of insight to this problem I've just changed the track rod ends on my Disco ! Suffice to say that I got the tracking OUT:eek: & on the way to Worksop got what I can only think was the death wobble (never had before) Had it tracked while having MOT ! drove home & NEVER had the wobble since ! 26ish in front & 30ish in back !
 
Magicgrotto said:
As a little bit of insight to this problem I've just changed the track rod ends on my Disco ! Suffice to say that I got the tracking OUT:eek: & on the way to Worksop got what I can only think was the death wobble (never had before) Had it tracked while having MOT ! drove home & NEVER had the wobble since ! 26ish in front & 30ish in back !
Click to expand...

Steering wheel goes bananas and feels like the doors are about to fall off, sometimes described as like driving a shopping trolley. Anything loose in your suspension or steering connections can cause it to some extent.
 
Refurbed boxes seem to have a bad reputation, and new ones a price tag that will buy you a whole Disco parts vehicle. Given that I've got three steering boxes lying around now, two that wobble and one that leaks, I thought I'd pull the leaky one apart. Sector shaft had pitting round the lower seal, unsurprisingly. There's a roller integrated into the shaft whose non-repairable bearing had brinelled quite badly, so I pulled a sector shaft from one of the other boxes that until recently was on the Disco.

Incidentally, when the LR Workshop Manual tells you how to dismantle a box, it really goes round the houses. If you just want the sector shaft out of there, take the Pitman arm off the bottom, undo the four bolts from the top, and the shaft pulls straight out. Takes five minutes. Doing it by the book takes an hour or so and leaves you with a shedload to reassemble...

Anyway, the second steering box was in a bad way - fluid burnt brown and full of particles, lower bearings both collapsed, shaft badly scored:
Shaft drawing.png


Howeve, the roller and its bearing are in good order. I've got in touch with a local hard chrome specialist to see if they can restore the bottom end of the shaft. Not sure it'll fit on their centreless grinder but if worst comes to worst I think I can prevail upon a friend to prep and grind it and just use these guys for the actual plating. Will report back once I know a) whether it's actually possible and b) whether it's affordable. I'd rather this than a recon box as then I know that the money has been spent on the bits that matter, i.e. the shaft isn't going to grind the seals to dust over the next three months or so.

Nice to understand the difference between how the two boxes feel on the road, at least - the leaky one had intact lower bearings and the difference in handling was night and day. If I can get one box sorted for the daily driver, I'll follow up with another for the project truck.
 
Right. The hard chrome place has asked for £125 to plate and grind - presumably that's plus VAT, so £150. That, plus some new bearings and a seal kit, is about the same as a reconditioned box but I'll know that the money's gone where it needs to.
 
Shaft has gone for hard chroming, but apparently you shouldn't run needle roller bearings against hard chrome. Instead, I'm having it ground to 31.675mm dia and will run it against an Oilite bush. This latter is 50mm long by 38.1mm OD (same as the bearings it's replacing, so should press fit into the steering box) by 31.75mm ID. I've no idea if this is going to work but will keep this thread updated.
 
Here's the shaft back from the chrome plater's, shown with the oilite bush in position. They spin really smoothly together and I'm happy with the fit - any more play and it might have felt sloppy, but this aligns it without feeling tight.
Steering shaft with bush.jpg
 
The bearings are right down in the bottom of the steering box, and I was worried that they might act as a sump for debris to collect in. Accordingly, I cut down one of the old bearing races to about 5mm high and fitted it above where the plain bearing will go, to act as a debris trap:
Bore shield.jpg

It's hard to make out, but the pressed in part sits just above where the lower roller bearings go, and stands just proud of the machined bore to discourage debris from falling into the bearing itself.

Then I tapped the plain bearing in. Neglected to get a photo, unfortunately. I would have been better to press it in rather than using a hammer and socket as I mushroomed it slightly and therefore had to dress it with a file and wire wool before the shaft would fit through it - whoops. Then I fitted the output shaft seals and circlip. It's easier to fit the seals while the shaft is out of the box:

Seals fitted.jpg


Passing the shaft through the seals is easier than the other way round, as the bearings keep the shaft perfectly straight. At least, that's the theory...

Next, I fitted the top cap / upper roller bearing to the housing and adjusted the play in the usual manner. The family need the car in the first half of this week (though they're getting me some ATF while they're out, so I can't complain) but hopefully I'll know how this box feels on the road before the end of the week.
 
Well, that's disappointing. Doesn't feel a lot better than the one it's replacing. Definitely sub-par. Adjusting the nut on top of the box helped a bit, but now I'm wondering whether the sector shaft rollers weren't the only dead bearings in there. Either that, or 0.075mm of diametral clearance is enough to cause death wobble. Might adjust the nut further tomorrow and try again but the omens aren't particularly good.
 
thetim said:
Well, that's disappointing. Doesn't feel a lot better than the one it's replacing. Definitely sub-par. Adjusting the nut on top of the box helped a bit, but now I'm wondering whether the sector shaft rollers weren't the only dead bearings in there. Either that, or 0.075mm of diametral clearance is enough to cause death wobble. Might adjust the nut further tomorrow and try again but the omens aren't particularly good.
Click to expand...

That's a shame, you seem to have done the right things ...

When I tried to fix mine I (eventually) found the two rollers (don't know the correct terminology) were actually split, one 'pinged' out .. only way to see the cracks was to actually press on the roller/bearing and force it open ...
 
The upper roller looks healthy enough, and the lower ones are gone in favour of a plain bearing. I can't see 0.075mm bearing clearance turning into death wobble - at least, I hope not. I think the fault lies inside the box somewhere as I briefly had excellent handling with a steering box that was functional but impossibly leaky. I'm wondering whether the input shaft ball bearings are shot, so the input shaft has busloads of play in it. The box I've just removed felt just the same, so I might have a look at its input shaft to see what health the bearings are in.
 
Agreed. I started there and between me and a local garage, found no source outside of the steering box. Tightening the steering box adjustment briefly eliminated the problem, but it returned. When the steering box spat all of its fluid I opened it up to reveal utterly shattered lower rollers. I replaced the steering box and for about two miles it was completely transformed - the steering was firm and direct instead of loose and wobbly. Then I found that the sector shaft seal was so knackered it had dumped all of its fluid. Swapped to another box I had hanging around and was back to square one with wobbly steering, but no leak. I'm pretty sure the fault's within the steering box, but it looks like the sector shaft might not be to blame - or if it is, then I've simply specified too much radial clearance when rechroming the shaft. I doubt there's more than 0.1mm total clearance in the bearing though, so I'm really hoping we're not that sensitive. Possibly the sector shaft bearings failed because I over-adjusted them to compensate for another failure inside the box?

Edit: I've now taken apart the "bad" steering box that I removed yesterday. No fault found. Initially I thought there was more slack than when I fitted it, but that was just because I'd initially set the free play with the output shaft centred, and was re-assessing it in its as-assembled condition which puts the output shaft right over at one end of its travel. Clearance is naturally much greater there.

Conclusion: I think the steering box is OK. Why I got good steering with the leaky box earlier, I don't know. Time to go round the rest of the system again.
 
Last edited:
Tightened the steering box up a bit and it's, well, OK. Not brilliant, but certainly usable. I'll see how I get on with it for a while.
 
OK - bit of an update. Tried to go on holiday in the beast and, well, got 25 miles down the road before concluding that the steering was borderline dangerous. Got under the vehicle while the wife shook it from side to side. No wonder - Panhard rod bush had massive play in it. A Muslim guy stopped to help and called every local parts supplier from Euro Car Parts downwards but nobody had bushes available, so we went back home and fitted a spare. Drove better. Worsened as we got closer to our overnight stop en route (in-laws) but still manageable - Pitman arm had come loose. Wasn't unwinding, as the tab washer was preventing it, but it's one failure that does scare me, and easily done even if you torque the arm up hard with a breaker bar - perhaps there was a little debris in the splines or something when I fitted the arm. Lesson learnt.

Evidently in the months between checking all of the front end components, concluding the box was to blame, and actually replacing the box, the death wobble has totalled half of the front end suspension, bearings etc. When we get home, I'll adjust the wheel bearings and swivels, if that doesn't help then it will get new rod ends, and if it's still not spot on then will re-bush the radius arms too. It's on Polys at the moment, so swapping isn't too hard.
 
Hope that's it ... certainly it sounds like it, good luck!! ;)
 
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